


That's The Easy Part

by XWingKC



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:07:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26894179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XWingKC/pseuds/XWingKC
Summary: Fictober 2020 Prompt number: 2 - That’s The Easy PartSam thinks about her life as she runs diagnostics on the dialing program.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 20





	That's The Easy Part

Sam sat down at the console and started typing away. There was a twelve hour time span for her to do some diagnostic work and regular system checks on the dialing program. It should only take her five hours. 

Everyone knew to leave her alone to get the work done. However, Siler and Harriman often would come check on her to see how things were coming along, or if she needed something like food, coffee, Diet Coke, or blue Jell-o. Today was Harriman’s turn.

Walter Harriman had been at the SGC a few days longer than Sam. Over the years, he had come to know the dialing program and symptoms of the Stargate system when it malfunctioned due to the time he spent with Sam. 

He and Siler both knew the Stargate system almost as well as Sam. Walter was the one who started dialing sequence narration as the Earth gate spun around. He also made a bet with Sam that if he were given the right materials that he could build Earth a DHD. So far, no one, not even Sam, had taken him up on that offer.

Siler had gone to the Gate room to do some energy readings on the capacitors since he had the downtime. They all seemed to check out, and he gave the thumbs up to Walter up in the control room.

Walter sat down next to Sam and drank his coffee and watched her work. She had just recently been pinned as Lt Colonel. Everyone was proud of her. Walter wondered why it took so long for her to be promoted.

Just like everyone else at the SGC, he admired her focus and dedication. Once she started on something, you really couldn’t get her away from it. Once her eyes were focused, no one tried to interrupt. It was only when she sat back to watch the computer reboot that he started any sort of conversation with her.

“Colonel Carter, you need anything?” he asked.

“Oh, no Walter, I’m fine, thank you. How are the wife and kids?” she asked.

“Doing well, thank you. Growing up far too fast for us, though. Both kids are in junior high school this year. It’s crazy,” he said.

“Wow, I didn’t realize they were that old!” she paused to read her screen, then continued. “How many times have you been off-world?” she asked him.

“Three times to a planet, then a few trips on Prometheus. I have wanted to go more, but it just never happened,” he replied.

She typed some more stuff into the computer, waited a minute or two for the computer to reply. Then she input a few more lines, then let it run again.

“How did you do it?” she asked.

“What do you mean, ma’am?” Walter asked, completely confused by her question.

“Oh, I just meant how did you go off world with your family behind? I mean, you couldn’t tell them anything, right? How did your wife take you being gone and you having to lie to her?” Sam asked. 

Walter smiled and sipped his coffee before replying to her. He sat back in his chair.

“Well, she understands classified work. She worked in Navy Intel for a while before we had our first child. She knows what it’s like to not be able to tell me things. She was fine with me being gone and me not being able to tell her a thing,” he answered, but finding it odd that Sam would ask him something like that.

Sam looked back at her keyboard after listening to his reply. She read the display and seemed satisfied with the output. She entered some more script at the command line. Then she waited again.

“How did the boys take you being gone?” she asked. Walter let out a small laugh. 

“That’s the easy part, actually,” he said. “The last time I left they were teenagers. They did not care. Or at least they acted like they didn’t. But when I came home, they were both clingy and asked all sorts of questions, most of which I couldn't answer straight.”

“I remember by the time I was a teenager, my mother had already died, and I was really a pain to my dad,” Sam told him. “I feel bad about it now.”

They both heard a computer behind them beep. They both looked at the same time, but Sam was the one that got up.

“It’s OK, sit. I’ll get it. Finish your coffee,” she said, then went to check on the other computer.

One thing that the people in the SGC knew about Colonel Carter was her generosity and kindness. Many officers can be rude to the enlisted folks. But not Carter. She’d gladly help them with their work, even if it meant her staying late. 

The computer had successfully rebooted, and she logged in to run the main program. Then she went back to the computer in front of the control room window. It was time to start diagnostics on the palm reader.

“Walter, can you stay for a bit? I’m about to start the upgrade to the palm reader,” Sam said.

“Sure, Colonel. I don’t get off work until five today,” Walter replied. 

“Great. Let this run, then we can test it. 

“So, do you still see Cassie a lot?” Walter asked. 

Sam inhaled sharply at the question, which made Walter recoil a little bit.

“Oh, I’m sorry, ma’am, I shouldn’t have asked you that.”

“No, no, it’s OK,” Sam assured him. “I don’t get to see her like I did before. I miss her. And I miss Janet,” she said, and they were both quiet for a while until the next round of updates completed.

“OK, let’s test it. Close the iris,” Sam told him.

Walter put his hand on the palm reader. The iris closed.

“Good. Open,” Sam said.

Walter again put his hand on the reader, and the iris opened.

“I’m sorry you don’t see her as much,” Walter said.

Sam smiled at him, then she went ahead with the next set of the upgrades.

“Me too. Thanks,” she said as she typed. “I’m done with what I need another authorized controller to do. Thank you for staying. And the chat,” she added.

“Alright. Thank you. And for what it’s worth, Colonel. I think you’d make a great mom,” he said. 

Sam averted her eyes to the keyboard, and smiled. She thanked Walter, then he left for the night to go home to his family.

A mom. Family. Both of which are something she was running out of time for. She did love her job. But she was starting to see that the vision of a family she was thinking about wasn’t going to be possible with her current boyfriend. No. Not boyfriend. Finance. Just at the thought, her stomach churned.

She wasn’t really in love with him. And he wasn’t patient and understanding with her classified job. Her experience was not the same as what Walter just shared with her. There was really only one person she could see herself with and have a family with.

She was starting to realize that she was with the cop because she could not have the one she wanted. The one that rules and regulations kept her from. But her dad is coming in a few days to meet the fiance. She hoped that the two of them would kick it off and get along great.

Maybe her dad will see that everything was OK. Maybe he’d see that everything would turn out just fine. Her dad would never lie to her. He may be cryptic at times. But, she knew that her dad would have words of wisdom for her. She couldn’t wait to see him and talk to him again.

Or maybe she already knew everything was not OK, and was just finding excuses to try to be happy. In a small way she was hoping that her dad’s visit would provide the catalyst she needed to move forward and find a way to be with the one she could not have.


End file.
